CAPRISA Centres of Excellence
DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in HIV Prevention
The Department of Science, Technology and Innovation-National Research Foundation (DSTI-NRF) Centre of Excellence (CoE) in HIV Prevention, established in 2015, is a South African research and training initiative focused on reducing HIV infections, especially among adolescent girls and young women. It is hosted by CAPRISA and co-hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The CoE brings together a network of leading national institutions, including CAPRISA, University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. It also collaborates internationally with organisations such as Columbia University and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.
The CoE’s core mission is to understand why young women in southern Africa remain at exceptionally high risk of HIV infection, develop and evaluate new HIV prevention technologies, including vaccines, microbicides, long-acting antibodies, and biomedical prevention strategies, strengthen implementation science and public health approaches for HIV prevention, and train the next generation of African HIV scientists and clinician-researchers. Its research spans HIV epidemiology and prevention, immunology and virology, clinical trials, vaccines, and broadly neutralising antibodies.
Overall, the DSTI-NRF CoE in HIV Prevention positions South Africa as a global leader in HIV prevention science while addressing one of the country’s most urgent public health challenges through collaborative research, innovation, and capacity building.
SAMRC-CAPRISA HIV-TB Pathogens and Treatment Research Unit
The South Africa Medical Research Council (SAMRC)/CAPRISA HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit is an SAMRC extramural research unit hosted by CAPRISA that focuses on reducing illness and deaths caused by HIV and tuberculosis co-infection, a major public health challenge in South Africa.
The research unit conducts clinical, epidemiological, laboratory, and implementation research to better understand HIV-TB interactions, optimise treatment strategies, improve patient outcomes, and inform national and global HIV-TB treatment policies. Its work has contributed significantly to evidence-based guidelines on the timing and integration of antiretroviral therapy and TB treatment, while also strengthening healthcare delivery and training the next generation of HIV-TB researchers and clinicians.
Global Virus Network Center of Excellence
As a Global Virus Network (GVN) CoE, CAPRISA contributes to global efforts in advancing virus research, strengthening outbreak preparedness, and training scientists through international collaboration and knowledge sharing. Its role includes conducting cutting-edge research on viral pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment, while also supporting capacity building in Africa and partnering with leading institutions worldwide to respond to current and future viral threats.
UNAIDS Collaborating Centre for HIV Research and Policy
The collaboration between UNAIDS and CAPRISA is aimed at strengthening research, training, policies, and programmes on HIV prevention globally, with a special emphasis on Africa, which aims to develop evidence-based prevention strategies through collaborative research on new methods of prevention and public health approaches to AIDS treatment that integrate HIV prevention, collate evidence and information on prevention to support UNAIDS briefs, support the conduct of HIV prevention research, including research on vaccines and microbicides, at regional level in Africa, and undertake training and build capacity to undertake prevention research, policies, and programmes.
